The University of Washington Press is the nonprofit book and multimedia publishing arm of the University of Washington.

Monthly Archives: May 2014

Award News

Kurkpatrick Dorsey’s Whales and Nations: Environmental Diplomacy on the High Seas was selected as the recipient of the 2014 John Lyman Book Award for Naval and maritime science and technology. This prestigious book prize is awarded annually by the North American Society for Oceanic History. One judge called the book “an excellent, superbly balanced, and thoroughly researched presentation that cuts to the heart of its topic and, simultaneously, demonstrates the interplay of environmentalism, science, culture, and international diplomacy.” Continue reading →

Several members of the University of Washington Press staff will attend the annual meeting of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) in Austin, Texas later this week. If you’re attending the conference, come by booth 214 in the exhibit hall to browse our new titles and to meet Senior Acquisitions Editor Ranjit Arab, our new Editor in Chief Larin McLaughlin, and Publicity Manager Natasha Varner.

Take a look at this preview of some of the books we’ll be displaying at the conference or view our new Native American studies subject brochure. Even if you can’t attend the meeting, you can take advantage of our 30% conference discount on all Native Studies titles! Just order online or call 1-800-537-5487 and use code WST1410 (offer expires June 30).

Be sure to catch the screening of the fully restored Edward Curtis film, In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914) on Friday morning at 10 a.m. in Salon K on the 6th floor of the Hilton Austin. The film, made in collaboration with the Kwakwaka’wakw people of British Columbia, was the first ever to feature an all Indigenous cast. Read more about the film and the accompanying book project below. Continue reading →

In today’s post, UW Press book designer Dustin Kilgore describes the process of designing the new cover for Carlos Bulosan’s memoir, America Is in the Heart: A Personal History. The book, first published in 1943, describes Bulosan’s boyhood in the Philippines, his voyage to America, and his years of hardship and despair as an itinerant laborer following the harvest trail in the rural West. As Marilyn C. Alquizola and Lane Ryo Hirabayashi point out in their new introduction, the book “still stands today as both an indictment of twentieth-century American imperialist designs overseas and a testament condemning a pre–World War II domestic regime of racialized class warfare.” Nevertheless, Bulosan maintained hope that America would provide new opportunities and he came to love it as his home. Here, Kilgore explains how he wrangled these complexities in designing the cover of the new 2014 edition of the book.

Prior to the 2014 reissue, the most recent edition of America Is in the Heart was published by the University of Washington Press in 1973 and featured a 1946 illustration by Frances O’Brien from the cover of the Saturday Review of Literature. When the design was reduced in size for the 1973 book cover, the shadows on Bulosan’s face appeared heavier than in the original illustration. This problem was exacerbated in subsequent reprintings, ultimately resulting in a heavily shaded, somewhat sinister-looking illustration of Bulosan. The determined look in Bulosan’s eyes in the original O’Brien illustration became almost glowering as the quality of the illustration was degraded over time.

The original Frances O’Brien portrait of Bulosan as it appeared on a 1946 cover of The Saturday Review of Literature (left) and the degraded, heavily shadowed illustration on the cover of the 1973 edition of “America Is in the Heart” (right).

News

Photo by Ann Yow / The Seattle Times, 1983

We were saddened to learn that Billy Frank Jr. passed away on May 5th. Frank, a member of the Nisqually tribe, was a tireless advocate for Native fishing rights in the Northwest. President Obama issued a statement about Frank. The Seattle Times and The New York Times, as well as many other publications, ran obituaries and remembrances. We’d like to contribute our own tribute to Billy Frank Jr. with this quote that we think shows some of the passion that fueled his lifelong commitment to achieving Native American and environmental justice:

Brochure for the opening of the I-90 floating bridge, 1940, courtesy of Eastside Heritage Center.

In honor of Historic Preservation Month, we feature a guest post from Barbara Lloyd McMichael of the Association of King Country Historical Organizations. McMichael coedited King County Collects: Treasures of Our Historical Organizations, a volume that highlights the best holdings of historic organizations in the Seattle area. Here McMichael describes the valuable role historical societies in King County play in preserving the historical riches of the Pacific Northwest.

With May designated as Historic Preservation Month, this is a good time to take note that in the United States alone over 4.8 billion artifacts are held in public trust by more than 30,000 archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, and other repositories. Stewardship of these holdings can be a painstaking and expensive task. Whether it’s photographs, textiles and documents, or large-scale holdings such as historic houses or farms, careful attention needs to be paid to proper maintenance, respectful restoration work, and appropriate cleaning and storage techniques. Continue reading →

In Hiking Washington’s History, Judy Bentley details forty trail hikes and describes the historical significance of spots along those trails in vivid detail. It’s a fantastic way to enjoy the beauty of the region, while also learning something about its history. In today’s guest post, Bentley details an urban hike or bike ride that will take you through areas of historic and contemporary significance to the Duwamish tribe and Croatian immigrant communities.

The mouth of the Duwamish Waterway from the low bridge

The Duwamish Waterway is the industrial belt of Seattle; the shipping and manufacturing enterprises along its controlled banks drive jobs and trade. As such, the Duwamish River Trail is not the most bucolic hiking trail in Washington, but it is dense in history. It follows the “duw-ahbsh,” a name that means something like “going inside,” the way in to the Puget Sound lowlands. In Hiking Washington’s History, I described the southern end of the trail from the North Wind Fish Weir to Fort Dent. The northern end of the trail is an equally rich in Native, immigrant, and economic history. This is a biking trail but also suitable for walking if you don’t mind some long stretches between points of interest. Continue reading →

News

The staff of the University of Washington Press was honored to host former Taiwanese Vice President Annette Lu and her coauthor Ashley Esarey for an author reception prior to their book talk at Town Hall Seattle. Vice President Lu and was in Seattle on the last stop of her U.S. book tour for her new memoir, My Fight for a New Taiwan: One Woman’s Journey from Prison to Power. See additional photos from her visit here.

Congratulations to Peter Sears, who has just been named the next Poet Laureate of Oregon. Sears is the author of Small Talk: Selected Poems, which we distribute for Lynx House Press. We’re delighted to have the opportunity to work with such an acclaimed poet!